the
undoing of her work. For a minute or two she watched the pair, then passed
unnoticed up stairs again. Leigh Shirley was the only girl who ever dared
to oppose Jo, and she did it so quietly and completely that Jo could only
ignore her. She could not retaliate.

"Jo Bennington, you are the prettiest girl in Kansas, and I claim the
first dance and the last, and some in-betweens, right now," Thaine
declared when she appeared again.

Jo was tall and graceful and imperious in her manner. The oldest and
handsomest child in a large family, she had had her own way at home and
with her associates all her life. Her world was made to give way to her
from the beginning, until nothing seemed possible or popular without her
sanction. Tonight her heavy black hair was coiled in braids about her
head, her black eyes were full of youthful glow and her cheeks were like
June roses. She wore a pink lawn dress vastly becoming to her style, and a
string of old-fashioned pearl beads was wound through her dark braids.

"You'd better make amends for spoiling all my pretty work as you and Leigh
have done," she said in reply to Thaine's frank compliment. "I'll make it
a few more dances, for you do dance better than any of the other boys--"

"Except Todd Stewart, Junior," the owner of the name, who had just come
in, declared. "There is to be a birthday party and an old settlers'
meeting, and maybe a French duel or two before midnight. I remember when I
was the only kid in the Grass River Valley. There were others at first,
but I always thought the grasshoppers or Darley Champers ate 'em. And Jo
is the first white girl baby born in captivity here. We'll lead the
opening of this ball or shoot up the ranch. You can have Jo for the last
dance, Thaine, my son, but me first."

"Oh, that's fine," Jo declared as Thaine was about to protest. "Serves
you right for spoiling my decorations. But, Thaine, I claim you for
the in-betweens and the last. Let's take one more look at the
refreshments--that Gimpke girl may have them all in a mess by this time."

There was a rush for the kitchen, where Leigh Shirley was already showing
Rosie how to keep the table of dishes in order.

Meanwhile, Asher Aydelot had gone out to the seat Thaine had put up under
the honeysuckle trellis.

"It is early for the crowd, Virgie. Come here and watch Boanerges
Peeperville tuning up," Asher Aydelot said as Virginia stood on the
veranda a little later.

She came out to th